ABC opens its new Southbank Centre

Posted 5th May 2017

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The ABC has officially opened the redeveloped Southbank building that will for the first time house all Melbourne-based ABC employees and productions in the one location.

ABC Chairman Justin Milne, speaking at an event to mark the completion of the Melbourne Accommodation Project, said the redeveloped building and production facilities would help the ABC to meet the challenges of rapid changes in media technology and evolving audience trends and expectations.

“By allowing staff to work cross-divisionally and cross-platform, they can better meet the demands of the modern audience, delivering content at a time of their choosing, on a device they use and in a format they want,” Mr Milne told invited guests including the Minister for Communications and the Arts, Mitch Fifield, ABC Managing Director Michelle Guthrie and members of the ABC Board at the 4 May event.

“This building is a recognition of the reality of modern media – new forms of working and more collaboration and engagement with audiences and the community.”

The event, hosted by RN Drive presenter Patricia Karvelas, opened with a Welcome to Country co-conducted by Boon Wurrung Elder Arweet Carolyn Briggs and Wurundjeri Elder Uncle Ronny Jones.

Mr Fifield officially opened the redeveloped building and reflected on former Prime Minister Paul Keating’s prediction when the original Southbank centre was built in 1994 that Southbank would one day become a significant arts and cultural precinct.

“Back in 1994, people might have scratched their heads, thinking, “why Southbank?”, Mr Fifield said. “It is now a vibrant part of this city, and it really is the arts and cultural precinct of this state.

“Located here in Southbank, ABC Melbourne really is in the city’s and the state’s cultural epicentre- surrounded by VCA, the MTC, the Australian Ballet, the National Gallery of Victoria, Opera Australia and, here in the building, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. It is only fitting that it has a presence that reflects its place on this stage, as it now does.”

Melbourne is the last of the ABC capital-city offices to have staff located in separate premises, and will house around 600 ABC staff across 4 floors, once all staff from Ripponlea and Elsternwick are co-located.

The new building is fitted out with state-of-the-art radio, editing and TV studios, and has incorporated environmentally sustainable features such as the glass façade which uses external shading devices to manage solar power gains.

ABC Southbank staff attended an unofficial opening on 3 May, where the Managing Director Michelle Guthrie congratulated employees for their dedication during the construction works.

Ms Guthrie also announced plans to name the new news studio at ABC Southbank in honour John Clarke, the performer and satirist who died last month.

“I know how important John was to many of you here, how your day was often made better by a wink and a grin from him across the newsroom,” she told staff. “I know how much he will be missed.

“Following a suggestion from his colleagues here at the ABC, that we have decided to name the main news studio in his honour. The John Clarke Studio will be officially named at a future date, but it is fitting that today all of us should recognise the contribution he made to the ABC and to audiences everywhere.”

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